GCI fine-tunes route for coming 'AIRRAQ' fiber network

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Highly-detailed fiber route surveys are underway for the AIRRAQ Network, a project that launched earlier this year and is poised to close the digital divide for more than 10,000 Alaskans in the coming years. The surveys are a key milestone for the joint Bethel Native Corporation-GCI project, which will deliver 2.5 gig residential internet speeds to 10 communities in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.

In June, a team led by GCI Principal Engineer of Telecommunications Delivery Bruce Rein and members of the Benthic GeoScience team spent approximately two weeks in Bristol Bay aboard the R/V Wolstad, a 121-foot research vessel, constructed originally for the Alaska State Troopers and built specifically for plying the frigid waters off Alaska's west coast. The vessel is a suitable platform for carefully and methodically gathering data and samples for analysis along the AIRRAQ Network's subsea fiber route. The route extends from Dillingham to the mouth of the Kuskokwim River until it reaches a landfall location within the Eek River and begins the overland route from Eek to Bethel and onto other Y-K Delta communities.

Now that crews have completed the shipboard portion of the network's subsea fiber survey, they are launching the riverine survey, which is slated to wrap up in the coming weeks. The riverine survey will begin near the mouth of the Kuskokwim River and proceed to Tuntutuliak and into smaller waterways, like the Eek River, that are part of the AIRRAQ Network's inland route. Crews will gather a variety of data, including everything from currents and water depth to riverbed composition, barge anchoring sites and traditional fishing grounds. It's designed to identify any obstacles and risks along the route to ensure the safety and longevity of the new infrastructure and limit future environmental and human impacts to the fiber during its decades-long lifespan.

Rein, who has more than 35 years of experience in the industry, has built fiber systems worldwide and across all types of Alaska terrain including across tundra and mountain ranges and along the bottom of rivers, lakes and the ocean floor.

The AIRRAQ Network is a 405-mile fiber-optic network that will deliver affordable 2.5 gig residential internet speeds and unlimited data plans to more than 10,000 people in 10 Western Alaska communities, including: Bethel, Platinum, Eek, Napaskiak, Oscarville, Atmautluak, Kasigluk, Nunapitchuk, Quinhagak, and Tuntutuliak. The project is funded by more than $73 million in broadband grants awarded by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program (TBCP) and the USDA's Rural Utilities Service ReConnect program.

Read the full press release here.

GCI